Mother killed by son had burned his drugs
Teen mistakenly released from custody, inquest told
‘He should have been in jail’
A MOTHER stabbed to death by her son while he was high on drugs had pleaded with a judge to help the teenager three weeks before she was murdered, her inquest has heard. Celyn Eadon, then 19, stabbed his 46-year-old mother Noreen Kelly 19 times in a frenzied attack on March 9, 2011, after she burned drugs belonging to him.
Less than a month previously, on February 16, 2011, Eadon was remanded in custody at Castlebar District Court in Co. Mayo – but, despite the order, he walked out of the courtroom.
He was jailed for life in 2014 after a jury found him guilty of the murder of his mother.
During his eight-day trial at the Central Criminal Court in early 2014, Eadon, of Derrycrieve, Islandeady, Castlebar, had admitted his mother’s manslaughter but pleaded not guilty to her murder.
The court heard that Eadon had started using drugs at a very young age, beginning with solvent sniffing at the age of ten.
By the time of his mother’s death, he was unemployed and taking amphetamines (speed), methamphetamines and cannabis, as well as prescription medication.
His mother had removed drugs from his bedroom and burnt them on the evening before she died.
Although he did not know who had taken them, his brother said he was ‘absolutely schizo’ about it and the State argued that their disappearance might have been a trigger for the attack.
Various witnesses told the trial that the accused was hallucinating in the days before killing his mother, seeing aliens, fire ants, demons and black smoke. He had also started a number of fires, both inside and outside their house.
A Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) report into the incident has since blamed Garda blunders for allowing him to walk free. It found that he should have been in jail had a court order remanding him in custody been adhered to, or the prepared warrant given to gardaí executed.
At the inquest yesterday, Noreen Kelly’s former partner, Michael Kelly, told the coroner that she should still be alive but for ‘a miscarriage of justice’.
Mr Kelly told the inquest that Noreen had pleaded for help for her son at a district court hearing three weeks before her death.
The judge remanded Eadon in custody and ordered that a psychiatric evaluation be carried out on him in prison.
However, despite the order, Eadon was released.
In March 2011, the then Minister for Justice, Alan Shatter, ordered an investigation into the circumstances in which Eadon was released at Castlebar District Court on February 16, 2011. It found that a committal warrant remanding Eadon in custody was issued by the court and was handed to An Garda Síochána; however, this warrant was not executed.
What ultimately happened to the warrant remains unknown because the original has gone missing, GSOC said in its report.
In addition to not executing the warrant, gardaí had also mistakenly believed Eadon had been granted bail on February 16 when he appeared at Castlebar District Court. While he was granted bail in relation to a new theft charge, he was remanded in custody to appear at Achill District Court on March 10 in relation to 17 other summonses, primarily road traffic offences.
GSOC found that ‘a number of members of the Garda Síochána present in the courtroom were of the view that Mr Eadon had been released on bail on all matters’.
Eadon argued during his trial that his prolonged drug abuse had caused brain damage and that such a mental disorder meant he had diminished responsibility.
However, a jury of seven men and four women rejected this and found him guilty of murder by unanimous verdict. A mandatory life sentence was imposed.
Eadon lost an appeal against his conviction earlier this year.
Yesterday, the Coroner for Mayo, Patrick O’Connor, said words could not express the horror of what had happened.
Superintendent Joe McKenna, on behalf of An Garda Síochána, joined in the expressions of sympathy. Supt. McKenna said he had grown up with Ms Kelly in Westport and described her as ‘a lovely lady’.
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